Oliva vs Olivette
American parents have registered 2,008 Olivas since 1880, against 788 Olivettes. But in 2025 it was Olivette that was commoner, 26 babies to 16.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Oliva Olivette
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 134 years in which either name was published, Oliva for 110 years and Olivette for 24 years. The lead changed hands 35 times.
- 1892–1935 Oliva ahead, apart from 5 short spells
- 1936–1938 Olivette ahead
- 1939–1946 Oliva ahead
- 1947–1949 Olivette ahead
- 1950–2024 Oliva ahead, apart from 2 short spells
24 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Oliva | Olivette | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 2,008 | 788 |
| Most in one year | 34 | 30 |
| Babies in 2025 | 16 | 26 |
| Estimated living today | 1,300 | 220 |
| Median age today | 26 | 9 |
| Peak year | 1990 | 1920 |
| Best rank | 3,227th girls | 1,470th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 6,838th | 4,987th |
| First recorded | 1884 | 1886 |
| Girls / boys | 1,976 / 32 | 788 / 0 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Olivas alive today are over 26; half the Olivettes are over 9. That is 17 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Oliva California (6.4×), Texas (1.9×), New York (1.6×)
- Olivette New Hampshire (169.1×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Oliva | Olivette |
|---|---|---|
| France | 380 | 445 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Oliva and Olivette.